Daniela Denis

EDUG 787-61

Professor Sheehan

Fall 2014
Growth Statement

Prior to taking this class I have never assessed a child with a psycho educational evaluation
assessment. I have assessed students based on their behaviors, but never academically. The last time I
assessed a student was in my behavior management class at Manhattan College. We needed to come up
with a Functional Behavior Assessment for a student in our classroom. With the WIAT, I was able to
score and give a description on the interpretation of the psycho-educational test. Part of the class involved
going off into the field and assessing the student. Although I knew the student, the thought of assessing
the child was still nerve-wrecking to me. This class gave me the opportunity for a hands-on experience
instead of the usual observations.
The WIAT consisted of English Language Arts and Math sections. The student was confident in
mathematics and did fairly well in it, but when it came to the writing section I noticed a difference. The
student wasnt as confident as he had been and completed the bare minimum of what needed to be done. I
feel that this happens in any classroom with any student you may have. I knew that the student I assessed
would have been able to write more if he was given verbal prompts and graphic organizers. This is
something to take in consideration of administering an exam. I was the type of student to do exactly what
the question said and not expand on my response. It wasnt until I had a tutor help me and show me what
I needed to do in writing. Having someone take the time to show me what to improve on really raised my
confidence level. I was too scared to ask for help in school because I didnt want my peers to think I was
stupid.
Professor Sheehan was readily available to answer any questions that we had pertaining to the
class. This is something that was really beneficial to me because I was nervous about the process and how
to administer the test. In class, I learned from my peers experiences with their assessments and how it has
impacted their students. I heard experiences of how the student was shy and didnt really open up to them
until a couple sessions have been completed. My peers started off by asking the students about their days
and getting to know them on a personal level before administering the assessment. I find this is really
important in building relationships with your students. I believe you need to get to know your students
before really teaching them. If you are just teaching and not knowing your students they wont retain any
information. The students may learn differently and this class has showed me the different types of
assessments to complete with the students. I was given handouts to read through and reflect on. This
really made me think back to my students and what would be beneficial to them.